Terrifying CCTV footage shows how the rookie motorist drove her Ford Fiesta on a Tyneside trading estate while two friends clung to the bonnet.

The young ‘car-surfers’ are willingly carried around the Team Valley, in Gateshead, as Bough drove with one hand, on the wheel, using the other to film the prank on her mobile phone.

But today, after the new driver escaped jail, road safety campaigners have said the stunt was no joke and the friends could have been killed.

Kevin Clinton head of road safety at the charity RoSPA said all three are lucky to have lived to tell the tale, and he is warning other young drivers to think of their families and not engage in such dangerous behaviour.

He said: “All three of these individuals were acting in an incredibly dangerous and reckless way, because it could have so easily resulted in one or more of them losing their lives. The driver should count herself lucky that she lived to be taken to court.

“We would urge anyone tempted to behave like this to think of the effect it would have on their family if the worst was to happen.”

And the AA’s road safety chief, Andrew Howard, added: “These people are acting like children, but a car is not a playground, it is a dangerous thing.”

The Chronicle revealed last month how Bough, of Chowdene Bank, Low Fell, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and using a mobile phone while driving, at her first appearance before Gateshead magistrates.

And when the 19-year-old returned to court for sentencing yesterday Paul Anderson, prosecuting, told how she was arrested after CCTV operators at the trading estate spotted the prank being carried out after 11pm on Sunday, April 8.

He said: “On the evening of April 8 a CCTV operator reports seeing a Ford Fiesta on Armstrong Street with two girls alighting from the vehicle getting on the bonnet and the vehicle driving down a couple of streets.

“The defendant was arrested and taken into custody and interviewed about the matter. “She fully accepts she was driving dangerously with two friends on the bonnet and at the time she was filming the event on her mobile phone.”

Bough hung her head in shame as magistrates watched the footage in which the two girls, aged 19 and 21, can be seen clearly clinging on to the front of the car.

And the court then heard how the teen, who had never been in trouble before, had brought shame on her family.

Richard Rogers, defending, said: “She’s from a very decent family. It’s highly unlikely you will see this young lady before the courts again. Her family is mortified.”

And he added that the car-surfing stunt had not been his client’s idea.

“The defendant was there with two friends. One of them suggested for a prank they should get on the bonnet of the car and the defendant would video the incident on her mobile phone,” he explained. “She drove three times at their request. Both were enjoying the experience.

“They themselves feel somewhat responsible about what will happen to the defendant.”

Bough was given a six week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, and banned from driving for 15 months.

Chief Supt Neil Adamson, Northumbria Police’s area commander for Gateshead, has also condemned the prank.

He said: “Something that seems like a bit of fun at the time could go horribly wrong. “This case could have had a very different and life-changing outcome if someone had been seriously injured.”